I am lactose intolerant. This probably explains my unhealthy obsession with ice-cream. My favourite dessert is nothing fancier or more sophisticated than a simple Ice-cream Sundae. Nothing satisfies my sweet palate more than vanilla ice-cream with hot fudge sauce, whipped cream, crushed nuts, caramelised banana, wafer biscuit and the all-important cherry on top!
Despite evidence to the contrary (what is with this crazy Melbourne weather?!), warmer months are just around the corner down here in Oz and I've got ice-cream on the brain! So I came up with a design concept for an old-fashioned Ice-cream Parlour "Make your own Sundaes " buffet with all the accoutrements. Read on for more pics, ideas and freebies to help you with your own ice-cream parlour buffet for your party, kids party or even wedding.
I absolutely love the idea of Make your own Sundaes for a party because it adds an element of creativity and fun to your event and is so easy to do. Guests have the thrill of customising their sundaes with a whole variety of colourful sugary toppings.
Here are the elements I've used in my Ice-Cream Parlour buffet concept:
ICE-CREAM AND WHIPPED CREAM
I've used a metal tub with ice to contain the ice-cream and whipped cream. Having someone serve these items may be quicker, easier and may avoid some added mess! I imagine in a wedding or large party context, having some form of refrigeration would be preferable but for a simpler, smaller party I'm sure a tub with ice would be sufficient.
OLD FASHIONED ICE-CREAM SUNDAE DISHES
At Wheel and Barrow I found these really beautiful old-fashioned pink hued ice-cream sundae dishes- Rather than use these for the sundaes themselves I've actually decided to use these for some of the toppings. I've limited the topping colour palette in these to white and pink to keep the aesthetic soft and light. I've used coconut covered Apricot Balls, Mints and mini Marshmallows.
WOODEN BOX CANDY DISPENSER WITH SCOOPS
I found this wooden box at The Works- Bed, Bath and Table. It was initially a very dark colour so I re-painted it white. I've used it to display some of the candy toppings. I've partially lined the interior with pink paper- partly for aesthetic purposes and partly to protect the food from the paint ( just to be on the safe side!) Candy within the box includes Rainbow Sprinkles, Milk bottles, Fruit Tingles and Shaved Coconut. I've deliberately used a soft, pastel colour scheme for the candy to tie in with the rest of the table. I've used metal scoops from The Works- Bed, Bath and Table for serving.
I also made little labels for the box. If you wish to make similar labels you need to download the Jane Austen free font from Dafont.
MARASCHINO CHERRIES
Got these from a deli at Prahran Market. How awesome are Maraschino Cherries? A must for every Sundae! They look gorgeous altogether with their stems standing up.
SAUCE TOPPINGS
Cottees have a limited edition Coconut Ice sauce which is a beautiful soft pink and fits perfectly with the colour scheme in my concept. Chocolate sauce is an absolute must! I've put them in little clear glass jugs but if you can find some really nice old-fashioned dispensers that would work exceptionally well! Other great topping ideas are Caramel, Strawberry, Passionfruit, Butterscotch, Hot Fudge (if you have the means to keep it warm). The more the merrier!
COOKIE JAR
Inside the big old-fashioned cookie jar, also found at Wheel and Barrow, I put crushed peanuts and almond flakes- would be great to put another metal scoop into this.
WAFERS IN STRAW DISPENSER
Yet another Wheel and Barrow purchase (I love this place!)- a straw dispenser is used to dispense Vanilla Wafers.
MERINGUES
I adore meringues! These were bought from Let Them Eat Cake. Some of their novelty cakes are so beautiful! Admittedly, sometimes I just go there to stare at them. I got the pink and the white ones and ended up incorporating them both. For the white meringues I placed them on a long rectanglular flat white dish which I lined with this beautiful pink padded paper found at Eckersleys.
OTHER TOPPING IDEAS
Chocolate buds, chocolate frogs, brownies, jelly beans, strawberries, fruit salad... any other ideas?
LABELS
I got these cute metal stands (below) from Chef's Hat and made these labels to accompany the toppings.
Note: These templates are editable. The editable font used is Ecuyer DAX, which I downloaded from Dafont. It is entirely an uppercase font so if you type without caps lock on, the font will be slightly smaller. Type in your own titles and print out onto white card.
PAPER CUPS
I looked everywhere for those short ice-cream paper cups you get in commercial ice-cream parlours but couldn't find them- other than for wholesale! Grr... So I ended up getting these standard 9 oz paper cups at Spotlight and I covered them with my own designs- an argyle pattern and a striped pattern.
These are available for free download below.
Each cup printout will use a fair bit of ink so I can't imagine using these for a large party. However, these would probably be ideal for smaller groups- especially kids parties. Alternatively, you may wish instead to use some elegant old-fashioned sundae dishes, like the ones I've used for the white candy toppings.
Note: Print onto plain white paper. Wrap around cup and stick with glue or double sided tape. I've used a 9oz cup that looks to be a fairly standard size.
MINI POPCORN CUP FOR SPOONS
I found some cute little pastel yellow and pink ice-cream plastic spoons at Spotlight. Little wooden paddles are also very cute and would work well. I've stored them inside this cute mini popcorn container which can be downloaded below.
Note: I've used a cast coated card , in pink and cream, which is fairly thick and has a beautiful gloss. I used the Lustralux brand found at Papyrus Design. This paper is not printable so firstly print out onto plain white paper, cut out the template with scalpel and trace around the edges onto the card. Use a scalpel to cut out. You will need a scallop edge scissors to cut along the top of the cup. I've used the Christine Re Chloe Scissors purchased from Rock, Paper, Scissors.
PADDLE STICK TOPPINGS LABELS
I got these jumbo paddle sticks from Riot Art and Craft and attached circular labels on them. These look great inside the old-fashioned sundae dishes.
Note: These templates are editable. The editable font used is Ecuyer DAX, which I downloaded from Dafont. It is entirely an uppercase font so if you type without caps lock on, the font will be slightly smaller. Type in your own titles and print out. Cut around the edge with scissors or circle cutter and stick onto jumbo paddle stick with glue or double sided tape.
MORE GREAT IDEAS
With more time, money and resources I would have loved to have a canopy over the top of the buffet with the familiar pink and white ice-cream parlour awnings. This would have completed the buffet perfectly. Sigh....
Bon appetit!
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FONTS USED IN THE ARTWORK FOR THIS PROJECT INCLUDE:
IMPORTANT NOTE: The downloadable pdfs in this article (and across my entire site) are free for personal use only. As a courtesy, if you wish to link to anything on this article, please link to this page and not directly to a downloadable file. Thanks for reading this boring footer stuff! :)
{all images by Amy Moss}
Warmly,
Nancy
Thanks all for the lovely, lovely comments. You've made my day! I am grinning from ear to ear. :)
You are the Aussie Martha and Amy Atlas combined with a cherry on top! Just stunning! The concept, the graphics, the styling, the photographs, the everything. Seriously stunning!
Whitney :)
Thank you for sharing!
AmyRuth
You are super detail and so ever generous.
Thank you for the inspiration !
Thanks for all the great comments and also thanks to those who have linked me. I'm tremendously grateful for the support :)
I love the concept! I've been wanting to have an ice cream party and the way you put it together here is beyond cute.
Lovely job!
thanks so much!
Cheers.
I'm off to browse the rest of your blog... I know my washing remains destined not to be done today!! ;]
Jen from Hello Bella Wedding, Events and Design
www.hellobella.com
When can I come? :)
FYI- I did find small ice-cream cups like the ones you get at the ice-cream parlour, they are available at Lombard's the Paper People, I found them at the store in Travencore, they only came with an ugly design (bold blue and white) but sure you can alter your covers to fit!
Thanks for all the hot tips.
0-0 This is incredible, thank you so much for sharing this with us.
I'm getting married next year, and this is so much inspiration.
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This is fantastic. I'm getting married next year and love cute DIY ideas like this. Thank you thank you for putting this all together. Such a great attention to details!
FYI I've linked to it over on my blog.
http://arielgordonjewelry.blogspot.com/2009/09/eat-drink-chic.html
I've been a miserable mope the last couple of days battling a nasty flu and these wonderful comments have sure brightened up my days. Thank-you! :)
Jo- Thanks so much for the tip about Lombards- I will have to check them out!
TonyaB - I hadn't worked out exactly how to do the awnings yet- it was something I would have loved to have figured out how to do but this project had so many other problems to solve that I just didn't have time to get to it.
thank you for posting this!
Ele ~X~
I love the attention to detail, so beautifully orchestrated. I know how time consuming the details are - it was worth every minute - great job Amy!
Check out my blog post about your talents! www.tallu-lah.blogspot.com
such a great idea
such beautiful colours
such yummy stuffs
the light of the pictures is awesome
thank you thank you
Carol
Unfortunately, I couldn't find suitable fabric or paper for the backdrop. So I tried manually cutting strips of pink paper to form the stripes. Since I basically had to use three strips of paper stuck together for each vertical stripe (couldn't source paper in the right colour that was large enough) the end result was slightly wonky and nowhere near clean enough- however, I was really keen to have the pink stripes so I ended up cheating a little by drawing the stripes into the photos digitally. Gotta love Photoshop!
Angela- I did hand-cut each label. Slowly and carefully. I haven't stumbled upon any stickers in these shapes before.
I literally had to wipe the drool from the corner of my mouth. This is so creative and fun!
Visit me: http://wp.clicrbs.com.br/chadaspanelas/2009/10/09/buffet-de-sorvete/
Congratulations for your wonderful job. Karen
I was wondering if you could tell me what the box you painted white was called. Im a melbournite (yeah the weather is a joke) But can't make it down to Bed bath and table. Ive been searching the net everywhere with no luck. It may help if i knew what the box was called, or even what it was supposed to be used for (eg.laundry box? photo box?)
Thanks again :)
Must be too excited!
:)
However, they also don't appear to sell online. They have a retail showroom in Armadale. Anyway, hopefully this info will help a bit. Good luck with hunting it down!
looking forward to your next creation...everyone seems to be doing candy bars and i want something different for my wedding (When i finally get into organising one!) Your icecream bar inspired me to have a vintage/carnival theme with fairy floss, toffee apples, rugs on the grass and the like.
keep up the good work XX
I'll talk to my blog (http://www.netenviesdemariage/blog-mariage/) with reference to you, congratulations!
Suggestion for creating a backdrop.
We did a Halloween event for 29 little people on the 31st. I wanted a backdrop for our Halloween candy bar...to set off the 'gummy eyeballs - dracula teeth - and halloween coloured M&M's!
I used an oversized cheap canvas from Home Base. (about 12,99) I painted stripes in Orange and Black using masking tape.
I also attached a huge black spider - it worked well. You could do the same sort of backdrop using pale pink and white stripes.
I'm also on the lookout for a portable ice cream parlour with canopy for our events.
I posted about your ice cream wonders at:
http://theeverdazzling.blogspot.com/2009/12/scoop.html
Thanks for being so brilliant!!
xo
I am so in awe of your ice cream sundae bar...it is beautiful...exactly the inspiration I was looking for. We are hosting the dessert portion of a neighborhood progressive dinner and wanted to do a sundae bar...will be using many of your ideas. I love the templates, but am hoping for a different color scheme for the holidays...is there any way to change the colors on your templates? When I try they are horribly pixelated. Thanks so much!
http://amorous.tumblr.com/post/280918685/yay-signs-the-placeholders-are-from-crate
Hope you don't mind, I posted on MiniStyle's Face Book FAN page.
Happy New Year,
Penelope x
Would it be possible to send me the file of the paper cup templates without the "ice cream parlour " label in it, I have been driving myself crazy tryinh to edit it in Photoshop
would be much appreciated!
Thank you so much. I was actually just dreaming of something like this in my head for my wedding and then stumbled across your blog. It's as if you just took this vision right out of my head. THANK YOU so much! It's exactly what I wanted and didn't think I could execute this without hiring someone :)
Regards
One question though... I looked on Chef's Hat website for the metal stands you show, but could not find them. Do you know if they sell these online? I'm from the states and any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Hope this helps. I live in Austin Texas
I am doing a parfait/sundae buffet for a baby shower and you have provided some great inspiration, thank you so much. And you are so generous for providing all your downloads!
xo
http://www.webstaurantstore.com/1-1-2-card-holder/92246795.html
Wow, I came across your blog while searching for ice cream sundae party ideas.
I think this is so beautiful and exactly what I would love to do for my daughters party. I am searching for the Sundae cups in pink...can't seem to find them. If anyone has more info, please pass it along. By chance are you selling your supplies? if so please contact me!
CAN I BUY SOME OF THIS THINGS IF I DONT LIVE IN AUSTRALIA?
THANKS!
If anyone is having trouble with downloading the files, try right clicking on the download button and save to your computer.
Unfortunately, I am not selling of any of the products I used in this post, so if you don't live in Melbourne I'm afraid you will need to try and source them locally.
Hope that was helpful :)
I spotted your cups!
http://www.chocolatesuze.com/2010/02/01/zeta-bar-cryogenic-sorbet-cocktail-bar
How/where did you get the main sign printed?
Thanks!